The Fitbit Air Is Great, But The Battery Life Could Be Better
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The Fitbit Air is affordable, lightweight, and quite an effective tracker with Google Health; the only thing you could ask for is a bit more battery life.
When you think of screenless health trackers, the Whoop band is usually the first thing to come to mind. Its latest 5.0 band starts at $200 annually and goes up to $360 annually, covering both the hardware and the premium subscription. Google’s Fitbit has been eyeing that space, and the Fitbit Air is the company’s way in.
Google’s screenless fitness tracker retails for only $100 for the hardware and offers a premium Google Health subscription, which is optional and costs $10 monthly or $100 annually. The Fitbit Air undercuts Whoop’s offering in nearly every way, but does it make the Air the superior product? After two weeks of testing the Fitbit Air, let’s talk about how it excels and let you know if its strengths outweigh its weaknesses.
Note:
My testing involved an average of 5,000 to 6,000 steps when walking and over 13,000 steps when active. I spent the weekends with a several-mile run one day and a two-mile walk on the other.
Like the Whoop and other screenless wearables, Google’s Fitbit Air is a sensor-armed pebble that rests in one of three Google-crafted bands. The pebble-sized tracker weighs 0.03 lbs within its band and only 0.01 lbs without it. To compare against the competition, namely, the Whoop 5.0 sensor, which weighs slightly heavier at 0.058 lbs alone and 0.072 lbs with a band. All three bands are light enough to barely notice them and comfortable enough to wear day in and day out. Removing the actual tracker was simple enough, as it only required minimal pressure to pop it out and swap bands.
While all three Fitbit Air bands are fine, I actually preferred the default Performance Loop for both everyday and exercise.
Regarding its bands, there are three options: Performance Loop, Active, and Elevated Modern. The Performance Loop is the standard band that the Air ships with, and I honestly think it’s the best offering for everyday use and fitness. The Active is a silicone strap modeled after the default Pixel Watch bands and adds four ridges, and it wears fine. Lastly, the Elevated Modern is comprised of polyurethane with a stainless steel buckle that is made to be the stylish option for your Air, and I prefer it over the Active, despite its clunky way to close it. There’s also a Steph Curry limited-edition band, modeled after the standard Performance, but it adds a water-resistant coating with an exclusive orange and gray color combo.
It’s armed with an optical heart rate monitor, red and infrared sensors for SpO₂ (oxygen saturation) monitoring, a three-axis accelerometer, a gyroscope, a device temperature sensor, a small status light, and a vibration motor. The latter allows you to create up to 8 alarms, which is quite effective, as it delivers a strong buzz on your wrist, and you can double-tap to dismiss. While the small pebble works with its Google Health app for data, the Air itself can save up to seven days of minute-by-minute motion data, up to 30 days of daily totals, and your heart data at 2-second intervals. The Fitbit Air is also water-resistant up to 164ft or the equivalent of 50 meters, as opposed to the latest Whoop, which can only be submerged up to 32ft or 10 meters.
Every Fitbit Air arrives with three months of the premium tier of Google Health, which adds access to the Google Health Coach: a Gemini-powered helper that provides personalized workouts, detailed sleep data, and 24/7 guidance with conversational check-ins. However, the free version of Google Health won’t get the advanced features, but still offers the standard activity, sleep, and health tracking with health and wellness logging.
Similar to the Fitbit Public Preview, the setup process involves answering the Health Coach questions about your health and fitness goals via voice or text. The process takes around 15 to 20 minutes and formulates a plan based on what you provide it with, which can be changed or edited at any time. I’m continuing toward my goal of running several miles in a single session without any post-knee pain. Last year, I got up to 8 miles, and I’m aiming to get back to that and hit 10 miles or more. The Health Coach provides proactive advice on how to reduce knee discomfort and when to rest, while adding tips to help achieve my daily and weekly goals.
The Google Health layout remains the same as the previous Fitbit app, with a weekly cardio progress circle, step counter, daily readiness score, sleep tracking, and the ability to add up to six more metrics on top of your personal dashboard. This “Today” tab is more or less the homescreen with additional “Fitness,” “Sleep,” and “Health” tabs. The Fitness tab showcases Coach’s notes along with your goals, recent activities, key metrics, and the app’s workout library. The Sleep tab provides your recent summary of your rest schedule, along with metrics and tips on how to get better rest. And the final Health tab lays out your heart rate, SpO₂, VO₂ Max, etc., and there you can add your medical records and share your progress with your friends via the leaderboard.
Using the Google Health app is quite seamless, from tracking your sleep, steps, fitness, etc. When running and walking, the app does a pretty good job of keeping up with the accuracy of my steps and distance. However, the app can be hit-or-miss if you’re looking for it to incorporate naps into your total sleep. You can also use the app to keep up with nearly every aspect of your health and wellness, including your monthly cycle, by logging your activity, body fat, food, glucose, hydration, sleep, temperature, and weight via camera, chat, gallery, or files. And yes, you can use multiple devices like a Pixel Watch and the Air paired together on the app. But, if you’re using third-party apps like Strava, you’ll want to stick with one for a more accurate reading.
Unfortunately, I never got the suggested seven days of battery life during my two weeks of testing.
Google says the Fitbit Air’s battery can last up to 7 days, which is already less than Whoop’s 14 days. Unfortunately, I never got that far, as I only achieved up to 4 to 5 days on a single charge. And when you account for degradation over time, the Air’s battery will only get worse. That’s a huge hit against the Fitbit Air. Now if you just do some light walking, you may achieve seven days on a single charge. I’ll update this if that’s the case.
However, the Air does charge relatively fast. A mere 5-minute charge provides 24 hours of juice, and it goes from 0 to 100% in about 90 minutes. The Air’s small status light glows in various colors depending on how much battery remains when you double-tap it. It shines white when the battery is over 20%; it blinks red when under 20%, and it also vibrates. It becomes solid red when at 0%.
Google did an excellent job crafting a pleasurable screenless experience in its inaugural effort. The $100 Fitbit Air succeeds as a lightweight fitness tracker with a powerful companion app powered by Gemini for a complete experience. Its Health is also masterfully executed to suit the needs of mildly and heavily active individuals. If you’re a Fitbit Premium subscriber, the current pricing of $10 monthly or the annual price of $80 won’t change—for the moment. Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers get access to the premium tier of Google Health at no additional cost.
But as good as the Fitbit Air is, its battery life could be better. Getting less than a week of power with only two days of any strenuous activity is not ideal. Moving forward, 10 days would be ideal, but 14 days or longer would be the sweet spot. But it would depend on whether Google can squeeze in a larger cell without making the device too bulky. In the meantime, Whoop can launch its answer to the Fitbit Air. There’s the thicker and similarly priced AmazFit Helio strap that offers a bit more battery life, and Samsung is rumored to unveil its screenless tracker. So competition in the screenless tracker space will continue to grow, as will your options as consumers.
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